The Persistence of Fictional Character Images Beyond the Program and Their Use in Celebrity Endorsement: Experimental Results From a Media Context Perspective

In advertising, film or TV celebrities can give endorsements in character – i.e. playing fictional roles in films and also in commercials. By means of two experimental studies, we contribute to the research on media context effects on advertising effectiveness. We argue that an appropriate fictional media context – which creates the stage persona of an endorser – provides information on fictional character traits that consumers may use to evaluate endorsers in character. We show this to affect endorser evaluation and arousal evoked by the ad. In Study 1, we compare one media context including an actor as a character congruent to the in-character advert, with a media context including another actor in another role (incongruence). In Study 2, in both media context conditions, the same actor was presented, but in a role that matches, versus one that does not match the in-character advert.

[ to cite ]:Anja Spilski and Andrea Groeppel-Klein (2008) ,"The Persistence of Fictional Character Images Beyond the Program and Their Use in Celebrity Endorsement: Experimental Results From a Media Context Perspective", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 35, eds. Angela Y. Lee and Dilip Soman, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 868-870.